I'm only going to cover briefly the original short barreled, air-cooled Brownings. They are dealt with in greater depth in Dolf Goldsmith's excellent volume, The Browning Machine Gun as well as Frank Iannamico's Hard Rain. This site is intended to deal with the influence these early Brownings have had on the recent resurgence of interest in the 1919 series Brownings. Because of the easy accessibility of WW2 period Browning 1919A4 parts sets, a large number of these have been resurrected in legal semi-auto form. A small number of collectors have taken an interest in the short barreled version, the 1919A2. The original 1919A2 parts sets are unavailable, so the only recourse has been to alter a 1919, as best as one can, to resemble the far rarer A2 variant.    Most images will enlarge if you click on them.

The Browning .30 caliber water-cooled machine gun and tripod was heavy, bulky, and not well suited to cavalry use. In response to the need for a lighter and more transportable MG, the Browning 1919A2 air-cooled machine gun was developed. The 1919A2 was also used in tanks and armored vehicles. Because the tall post style front sight made it difficult or impossible to install the A2 in some mounts, like the ball mount, the sights were sometimes removed altogether and remote sighting was used.
    The image at left shows a 1919A2 on an M2 tripod. Source: Hard Rain, by Frank Iannamico

If you are interested in these resources, click on the image to go to BMG parts where they can be purchased.

The drawing at left is my best understanding of the best way to produce a shortened barrel that has the correct front bearing surface. The tolerances are tight, as the press fit must withstand the recoiling forces. You want this done by someone willing to take the time to do it right.

As to the shroud, the easiest route to a shorty is to simply shorten the shroud of the 1919A4. The shroud is usually cut and rewelded. The 1919A2 had an 18.63" barrel, and Federal law requires it be no shorter than 16" without a special short barrel license.

You must also enlarge the booster opening to 3/4". I prefer the older two piece booster to the one piece step-down booster that came with my barrel, so I had to modify a .308 booster. When the Israelis modified the 30-06 boosters, they drilled the hole to .80", then pressed a bushing in the hole. When you drill out the bushing it will reveal the enlarged hole, perfect for the shorty.

Following a brief description and photos of my gun will be photos and information on other shorty project guns.

There were things I liked about both the 1919A2 and the Colt MG38BT. I love the early slotted barrel shrouds, and you rarely see them these days. I decided to start here. Mark Genovese has one on his shorty, which was the inspiration for me building mine. Photos of Mark's gun follow this tutorial. Mark Jasobs of Black Bear made the barrel and shroud on Mark Gs gun, so I got in touch with him about getting one for my gun. That done, I moved on to another feature I wanted - spade grips. I had been wanting to get away from the external trigger tripping design used on after market spades and make a grip with the original internal trigger mechanism. This was an opportunity to do that, and the MG38BT design was my template. More on the spadegrips later. My gun was going to need sights, so I decided on the shroud mounted front post sight. The rear sight on the 1919A2 appears to be mounted on the top cover latch. The best available photos are not very clear on this. If you have something that shows good detail on the rear sight of a 1919A2 I will add it here.

Short slotted barrel & shroud
Front post sight
Top mounted rear sight
Spadegrips with internal trigger mech.

At left is a shot of my shorty in my gun room.
Click on the image for an enlargement of just the gun.

At right is a shot of the rear of the gun showing the spadegrips. This was taken before the rear sight base was removed.

The 1919A2 was a blued gun, so the wire wheel went to work to remove the Parkerizing. I wanted the gun to look like it had some age, so the bluing was done so as to give a worn look.

At left is a 1919A2 front sight. I have seen variations, but this is the one I used.

I made the band by beating a piece of 3/16" x 1" bar stock around a mandrel, then welded the seam and turned it on a lathe. The post was welded on with a liberal bead and the contour turned and ground. The internal mechanism was my best guess at how the adjustable front sight post might have worked. The hollow screw post contains the spring and ball, which rests on a flat filed on the sight blade pin. It stops every 360 degrees. You can put flats on both sides if you want. The 1919 is not a tack driver, so I used only one flat.